package org.apache.maven.model.locator;

/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
 * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
 * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
 * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
 * specific language governing permissions and limitations
 * under the License.
 */

import java.io.File;

/**
 * Locates a POM file within a project base directory.
 * 
 * @author Benjamin Bentmann
 */
public interface ModelLocator {

  /**
   * Locates the POM file within the specified project directory. In case the given project
   * directory does not exist or does not contain a POM file, the return value indicates the
   * expected path to the POM file. Sub directories of the project directory will not be considered
   * when locating the POM file. The return value will be an absolute path if the project directory
   * is given as an absolute path.
   * 
   * @param projectDirectory The (possibly non-existent) base directory to locate the POM file in,
   *        must not be {@code
   *            null}.
   * @return The path to the (possibly non-existent) POM file, never {@code null}.
   */
  File locatePom(File projectDirectory);

}
